Opposition leader Bernard Grech on Sunday reiterated his vow to “take difficult decisions” to renew his party.

Speaking in an interview with the editor of The Malta Independent Neil Camilleri, Grech spoke about the party’s attempts at overcoming the gap with the incumbent Labour government, arguing that PN must “learn from its past mistakes”.

Grech maintained that the party’s structures are working in teams, or “clusters”, to provide a fresh set of proposals for the electorate and to embrace consultation with as many stakeholders as possible as part of its renewal efforts.

“We must change ourselves first to provide people with reasons to come back to the party. It is the lesson we must learn from the voters who sent us back to the drawing board over the past two elections,” the leader of the opposition said.

Grech also referred to the entertainment and catering industries and the ongoing debate about the legalisation of cannabis.

‘Institutions must work autonomously to function’

Grech said that the recent arrests and court prosecutions involving high-profile figures such as former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri had occurred as a result of the magisterial inquiry requested by former opposition leader Simon Busuttil.

"Action in the case was only taken because of the magisterial inquiry Busuttil insisted upon five years ago and which had borne results."

“But institutions need to work on their own, autonomously, not because someone else pushed them to do it,” Grech said.

The leader was also asked to comment on cases involving the office of the standards commissioner and the Ombudsman’s office.

The standards commissioner’s reports are overseen by an ethics committee made up of government and opposition MPs.

The two entities, whose responsibilities include investigating the conduct of MPs, “are not strong enough to fulfil their duties”, according to Grech.

“The fact that we do have a commissioner is a positive step forward; Hyzler is a man of integrity and has done a lot of good work so far,” Grech stated.

“However, what is the point of having such an office draw up reports based on investigations only to have the ethics committee decide on it? 

“That’s the equivalent of someone who has been found guilty in front of a magistrate’s court going to a committee that is controlled by colleagues of the guilty party rather than facing consequences in prison,” he said.

“That is why as a party, we would want to strengthen the office’s powers, including giving it the authority to publish the report’s conclusions straight away,” Grech added.

‘I am obliged to continue making necessary changes’

The leader of the opposition spoke of the need “to take difficult decisions such as pushing for younger candidates” while sidelining long-serving MPs.

“The Maltese electorate has been telling us to regenerate, which is why my campaign from day one was focused on this aspect,” Grech said.

Earlier this week: PN candidates Graziella Attard Previ, Justine Schembri and Jerome Caruana Cilia.

Grech pledged his party’s willingness to “make space” for new faces in the party’s fora, stating that new faces in politics are welcome in the party as long as they have the “right attitude”.

“This attitude would be one of sincerity and humility, to acknowledge that we do not know everything and that we do not pretend that we are the only ones capable of governing,” Grech stated.

“As leader, I would rather lose because I tried to give our members the regeneration they want instead of because I didn’t bother trying to do so,” he said.

Free testing facilities for tourists

Grech argued that rather than inviting over tourists indiscriminately, “the best way of attracting tourists would be to be a safe country for them to enjoy”.

“While we are in favour of incentives, we must have in place proper mechanisms such as testing centres for tourists in Malta and Gozo to make sure they can be tested for free, which is what we are proposing,” the opposition leader said.

“This type of testing would make it easier for people to travel back and forth; that’s one way of incentivising people without handing them funds in cash,” he added.

‘We cannot send the message that cannabis is harmless’

While Grech maintained that the Nationalist Party is still consulting with stakeholders on the government’s white paper for the legalisation of cannabis, he maintained that the use of cannabis “does, in fact, do harm”.

“While I understand that there are thousands of people who use this substance, and I absolutely agree that none of these users should go to prison for doing so, we cannot send the message that cannabis is harmless,” Grech said.

“We want to thoroughly research our position with stakeholders, and what we are going to propose is something that keeps in mind the harmful aspect of substance use,” he added.